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Sensory Bottles

Remove the wrappers and clean 8-12 oz soda/water bottles. Fill with various liquids and objects. Hot glue the top on.
I have found that the children will sit and just turn the bottles back and forth, or roll them along the floor and keep their interest up for a long time. I use them for transition times and science mostly!
Here are some ideas for different bottles.

  • Yellow water and blue sparkles/glitter. (When shaken, the water seems to turn green. Yellow + blue=green.)
  • Blue water and baby oil. (The blue water when shaken, will seem to mix with the oil and change blue, when it settles, the color does NOT penetrate the oil.) Also, Add pony (craft) beads and they will float between the two liquids.
  • Water with sink/float objects. Add seashells, coins, plastic objects that float. (When turned upside down the penny will drop instantly, the seashell will slowly sink if there is an air bubble inside and the plastic will float.)
  • Fill a bottle with gel/gel shampoo. (Air bubbles will slowly float through the thick liquid.)
  • Fill a bottle with water and put in some of the easter grass. Add a few pony beads and make a maze! When you turn it upside down and back the beads will slowly move through the tangle of easter grass.

Mr. Senses Poem

If a bird you want to hear,
you have to listen with your ___ . (Ear)

If you want to dig in sand,
hold the shovel with your ___. (Hand)

to see an airplane as it flies,
you must open up your ___. (Eyes)

To smell a violet or a rose,
you sniff the fragrance through your __. (Nose)

East and west and north and south,
to eat or talk you need your __.(Mouth)

Big Chill Painting

  • Paper (glossy)
  • Kool-aid
  • Spoon
  • Ice cubes

Have children take turns using the spoon to scoop kool-aid out of the container and onto their paper. Give them each an ice cube and let them swirl the kool-aid around. They can make any design they want. As they are working, ask them how the ice cube is making their fingers feel. Also ask them to put a finger in their mouths and tell you what flavor they taste. Let children's art dry.

Teaching Children About The Five Senses

As a child's first teacher, a parent has many important concepts to teach including how to use the five senses to learn about the world. This concept called "sensory development" can be simple to teach just by trying the following suggestions that use things you might find around the house.

The sense of touch
Children can become more familiar with their sense of touch by playing with materials like homemade or store bought modeling dough, clay, water, sand, uncooked rice and gelatin. Find good places for these "messy" activities and use old shower curtains under the "work" so clean up is easier.

One game that parents can play is to take an empty pillowcase and place familiar objects inside. Let children, one at a time, try to guess what the objects are. Parents can help children describe how each object feels. This game can be varied by using seasonal/holiday items in the bag or by using items with a theme such as shapes or animals.

The sense of sight
Parents can help children focus on their sense of sight by placing four or five familiar objects on a tray. Give children one minute to look at all of the items and then cover the tray and ask the children to share what they saw on the tray. As children get used to this game, they will begin to focus more on the objects so that they are able to share when the tray is covered again.

The sense of taste
Children can learn to identify foods by taste with this activity. Parents just need to gather up different foods (like peanut butter, banana, raisins, etc.) and have children cover their eyes as they taste each one. After they taste a food, have them guess what they tasted. Giving children the words they need to describe different tastes such as sour, salty, sweet, fruity, etc. to help them understand the meaning of the words.

The sense of smell
Parents can teach children how to identify foods and other household items by smell. Start by gathering a variety of items with different odors such as a lemon, pickles, flowers, grass, soap, etc. Cover children's eyes and have them smell each thing and guess what it is.

The sense of hearing
Parents can help to develop a sense of hearing and listening by helping children listen to objects and animals. You can cut pictures of animals and everyday household items out of magazines and glue the pictures on paper. Then use a tape recorder to record sounds of these objects and animals. Encourage children to point to the appropriate picture as each sound is played

Our Five Senses

Objective

To teach the children what the five senses are and which parts of the body they use to experience these senses. To provide a variety of activities which encourage the children to use those senses to better understand how they work.

On this page you will find:

Teaching Aids

An Introduction to the Five Senses
Make a large outline of a child on either butcher paper or posterboard. Attach to wall, chalkboard, or bulletin board. Draw in hair and clothing, but leave out the face. (Out of separate posterboard or paper you need to draw and cut out ears, eyes, mouth, and nose). Ask children how this child would learn about things which were happening around him/her. The children might need help, so you could ask, "Can he see?" "Can he hear?" etc. Tell them that the only way he could know about anything around him was by touching things and people. Have the children suggest what the child might like to learn about your daycare, and what parts of the body he would need to learn it. As children name the parts of the face, tape them to the appropriate place in the outline, and label them with the words SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL, and TASTE. Label the hands with the word TOUCH, but explain to the children that we touch with all parts of our skin. Tell the children that these are the words for the five senses that let us know what the world around us is like (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 5).
Rewards for children
Use a variety of stickers for rewards: scratch & sniff, "fuzzy" stickers, stickers with glitter on them.
Pictures / Posters
Find pictures / posters of people USING their five senses and put on walls, bulletin board, etc. (Remember to put them at children's eye-level). Use these to stimulate conversation during the day. If you cover them with clear Contact paper, they will withstand touching and handling by the children, as well as not tearing if the children pull them off the wall. Labeling these with the words SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL, TASTE, & TOUCH helps the children recognize these words more quickly.

Books and Stories

Books
Check your library for any books that have to do with the five senses. Toddlers' "feelie" books (the ones with items of different texture inside) are good, as are any books that deal with what you see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. Other books to think about are books which deal with the parts of the body through which we use these senses. (For example the Dr. Seuss books: "The Nose Book," "The Foot Book," "The Ear Book," "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb").
Books on Tape
These are especially good for this unit, because not only do the children listen to the story, they have to HEAR the auditory cue (bell or beep) to turn the page and respond accordingly.
Goldilocks & the Three Bears (with a twist!)
Tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Have the children listen carefully, and every time Goldilocks uses one of her 5 senses, they respond with an appropriate action: wiggle fingers in the air (touch), stick out their tongue (taste), make "glasses" with their hand and put up to their eyes (sight), wiggle their ears or nose with their finger (hearing, smell). If the children are very young, you may have to go slow and help them a bit. (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 7).

Music and Fingerplays

Songs to sing
Rhythm Instruments!
Play rhythm instruments -- either store-bought, or homemade (see Arts and Crafts) -- and pay attention to the different sound each one makes, and how combinations of 2 or more sound together. Then allow the children to play them to music, noting how they sound.

Arts and Crafts

Use Sensory Materials
Make rhythm instruments
There are many good ideas for making instruments in craft books (check your library!). Instructions for three instruments follow. Make sure you allow children to play the instruments when finished!!
You can stretch this project out by letting the kids decorate the cups, cans, etc. first. This also individualizes the project for them. For example, if you use a coffee can for a drum, cut a piece of construction paper the right size to wrap around the can. Have the kids decorate the paper (you could even use scented markers!), then glue the paper to the can (rubber bands will help hold it in place).
Make a collage (or book)
Let children look through old magazines and find pictures of people using whichever sense you're talking about. Let them cut the pictures out and glue to a large sheet of paper to make a collage. The children could add to this collage with new pictures each time you introduce a new sense. Variation for older children: have them write a story about what the people in the pictures are doing, print it, and put it in book form. They can then use the pictures they cut out to illustrate their book.
Make a "feelie book"
Cut posterboard into "pages" the same size. The idea is to produce a book with a different "texture" on each page. For example: have the children draw a beach or sandbox scene on one page. For the sand, either spread glue and sprinkle salt or sand on it, or glue on a piece of sandpaper cut to the correct size. Draw a picture of a dog or teddy bear and fill in with "fake fur." Use your imagination for the rest of the pages, using a variety of textures. When all the pages are done and dry, punch holes along the left side and bind together with yarn. Note: if the children are too young to draw the pictures, you could photocopy simple drawings and attach to the posterboard pages with rubber cement (smoother than glue) ahead of time. Then the children could just color the pictures and glue the textured item. With this method you could already pre-cut the textured items, too, since you would know what size they would be. (One final note: you will want to stagger the placement of the textured item on each page so that the book closes more easily).
Make a pomander
Note: if done near the beginning of April, this will be ready to give as a gift by Mother's Day!
Items needed:
Explain to the children that pomanders are old-fashioned gifts that make drawers or closets smell good. Have each child make two crossing circles of masking tape around his/her orange, lemon, or lime (one going around the "equator," and the other going around "perpendicular" to it). Have the children stick cloves into the rind, filling each quarter outlined by the tape. (The cloves should not touch each other). Help the children remove the tape and roll the pomander in ground cinnamon. Wrap each pomander in tissue paper and let it dry for about four weeks. When the pomanders are unwrapped, help each child tie ribbons around his pomander, following the lines left by the tape. (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 29).

Science Experiments

Taste and Smell Work Together
Peel an apple and a potato and cut into small pieces. Have children plug their noses and taste a bite of each. Can they tell the difference? Then have them repeat the experiment with their noses unplugged. Is there a difference now? Explain to them that our sense of smell and taste work together. That's why sometimes when we have a bad cold we can't taste food very well.
"Looks the Same, Tastes Different"
Gather several groups of items which look the same, but have different tastes. Examples are: salt & sugar, root beer & cola, 2 types of apple (a sweet and a tart). Give each child two plastic cups and pour a little of each liquid into each and have them taste. Give each child a plastic spoon and put a little sugar in one, and a little salt in the other and have them taste. Give each child a piece of each type of apple and have them taste. Ask questions about the appearance of the two similar items, then about the taste. Try to get the children to use words to describe how the items tasted to them. (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 33).
"Smell the Difference"
Put some water in a clear plastic cup, and some white vinegar in another. Show the cups to the children and tell them that one contains water, and the other holds something that tastes very sour. How could they tell which glass to take a drink out of if they were thirsty? Let them take turns smelling the two cups and telling you which has the water in it. (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 29).
How Our Eyes Work
Show children how our eyes respond to light by shining a flashlight into one child's eye while allowing others to watch. Make sure that the child who had the light shined in his eye gets to observe this on someone else. Explain to children that the pupil is a little hole that gets bigger in dim light to let more light in to help us see better, and smaller in bright light to make sure not too much light gets in our eye. Follow-up activity: Draw an eye with a large pupil and an eye with a small pupil on posterboard. Show children pictures of people engaging in different activities: playing outside in bright sunlight, sitting at the dinner table, taking a moonlight walk on the beach, sitting around a campfire, swimming in a pool, etc. (Get these pictures from books, magazines, etc.). Have a child come up and show which way those people's eyes would look by pointing to the appropriate "eye" on the posterboard.
"See Them Separate"
Items needed:
Tell the children they are going to do an experiment to learn about colors. Let each child choose either green, purple, or orange marker or food coloring, and mark a stripe or put a drop on a strip of the paper about one inch from one of the ends. Tie a string over the pan of water, and using clothespins, hang each strip over the pan, colored end down, with the bottom touching the water. (After a few minutes, the color should separate into the two primary colors which make it up, and bands of these two colors will spread up the paper.) Make sure children understand that each color they put on the strip of paper is a mixture of the two colors they now see. Allow the strips to dry, and the children can either use them as a bookmark or give them to a parent to use as a bookmark. If you wish, repeat the experiment with the three primary colors, and compare the results -- they will not separate! (MacMillan Early Science Activities, "The Five Senses," page 11).

Games & Activities

Games
Sensory Walks
Take the children on walks outside, calling their attention to different sights, sounds, smells, and textures. If you are also working on another unit (Spring, for instance), tie this in if possible ("How many sounds of Spring can you hear, boys and girls?" "What do you see that shows you Spring is here?"). Other ideas to make these walks more meaningful:
Water & Sand play
Water and sand play fit nicely into this unit and lead to discussions about how these feel, look, and sound. Sand is especially good if you can leave part of it dry, and make part wet. Then compare the two and talk about the differences in how they feel and the differences in what you can do with the two.
Activities with tape recorders
  1. Record some common household and/or outside sounds on a tape player (train whistle, car horn, bird singing, bell ringing, dog barking, water running, toilet flushing, etc.). Do some that are easy, and some that are harder. Play the sounds and see how many the children can guess.
  2. Children often like to hear how they sound on a tape recorder (we all sound different to ourselves than we do to others). Allow them to tape themselves talking, singing, etc. and listen to themselves.
  3. Older children could make books on tape for younger children by reading a story and ringing a small bell when it's time to turn the page. They might even want to experiment with some sound effects, if working on this as a group project. Then they can listen to the finished project, making sure page turns are at the right place and that any sound effects are properly done.
  4. Record simple one- , two-, or three-step directions on a tape recorder. For example, a two-step direction could be, "Pick up a red block and put it in the toy box." Let the children play the directions and follow them.
Activities: Sight
Find coloring book pictures which have several objects that are very similar, but only two are exactly alike (most "color and activity" books have at least one "Find the two which are exactly alike" page). Either photocopy them and give a copy to each child, or try this method to save paper and money: mount the picture on construction paper, using rubber cement. Cover with clear Contact paper. Allow children to take turns doing this activity by marking on it with a grease pencil (it will wipe right off with a tissue). You can use this method for a variety of activities. Note: For very young children, the pages which have four items -- three alike and one different (three butterflies and one bee) -- might be more appropriate. The child picks the one that is different.
Activities: Smell
Activities:Taste
"Comparative Tasting" -- Let the children compare the taste of different varieties of the same foods such as red and green seedless grapes, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples, and cheddar and mozzerella cheeses.
Activities: Sound
Activities: Touch

Snacks

Choose snacks that have a good aroma, as well as taste. Perhaps have popcorn one day, if the children are over age 2. Popping it in a popcorn popper -- an archaic device used back in the late 1970's/early 80's when I was in college, before the days of microwaves! -- is best (if you can find one), because the children can SMELL, HEAR, and SEE the popcorn popping. Talk about the textures, smells, and tastes of all snacks.

Recipes

These all came from "The Best of Totline Newsletter," page 139

Clay
Ingredients:
Mix salt, flour, and water together in a bowl, adding more flour if necessary to make the mixture a doughy consistency. Sprinkle powdered tempera on and mix well. Objects made with the clay will air dry in about 48 hours.
Crunchy Dough
Ingredients (per child):
Crumble the shredded wheat biscuit into a bowl. Add the glue and, if desired, several drops of food coloring. Mix the ingredients together until the cereal is completely coated. Objects made with the Crunchy Dough will air dry in about 12 hours.
Cornstarch Paint
Ingredients:
Mix the water, cornstarch, and several drops of food coloring together in a saucepan. Heat and stir the mixture until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Let it cool. Store in a covered container. Use the paint for fingerpainting or as an almost dripless easel paint. If the mixture becomes too thick, add water until it reaches the desired consistency.

TOUCHING.....

Our sense of touch shows us the shape, size and "feel" of our world.
Discussing the helpful aspects of this sense leads down many interesting pathways.
We are kept SAFE by learning to avoid touching a burner or a flame, a sharp edge or point, very cold metal, ........ any other suggestions?
Our feelings are HAPPY when we stroke a dog, when we get a hug, when ..... ?
Our feelings are SAD when we run into something hard, cut our finger, .... ?
We wonder why we ITCH and why scratching that itchy nose relieves it.
Then the TICKLING CONUNDRUM is simply in a class of its own. Why does tickling make us laugh? Why are certain parts more ticklish than others? Why can't we tickle ourselves? Why is tickling funny for only so long, then it make us peevish? So many great questions arising from scientific cogitation, many are unanswerable to us but maybe we can find an expert who will help us with answers.

THE TOUCH DETECTOR

The body organ used for touching is the SKIN. Every bit of skin all over our bodies, including our nails, is used for touching. The nerve endings in the skin send signals to the brain, the brain analyzes the signals and registers the effect of the touch, then signals the reaction to the rest of the body. Some sections of the skin are more sensitive than others. To demonstrate this take an object with an irregular surface (a Ping-Pong paddle works well) and touch it to the elbow, the knee, .... anywhere but the hand, and try to identify the surface characteristics. Finally touch the paddle to the fingertips. The fingertips win "hands down" in the high sensitivity touching contest!

MYSTERY SURFACES

Make your own touch surfaces by coating index cards with glue, then spreading on separate cards items such as popcorn, sugar, flour, seeds, sand, paper, soil, etc.
Put each card in a separate, numbered paper bag and have each student reach into each bag and identify each surface.
Younger students can be helped by having a duplicate reference set of cards available to compare, older students are on their own!
(This is also a good time to get some "expert" help by asking students for suggestions as to surfaces you could add to the activity next time!)

MYSTERY FABRICS

This time put in each numbered bags a sample from a variety of fabric items such as: a towel, a sock, a tee-shirt, denim or corduroy jeans, a sack, a lace curtain, something suede, something furry, and so on. The rules are the same as the Surface Quiz above.

CHARTING AND RECORD KEEPING

Chart some different touch sensations, determine their opposites and select common items and chart their touch characteristics.

WHERE AM I?

Here's a touching story.
It is a warm day, I can really feel the heat on my face when I turn it up to the sky. As I walk along the soles of my bare feet are feeling something hard, hot and ridged. I turn and go down steps which feel the same, I hold onto the rail which also feels hot, hard and ridged against my palm. At the bottom of the steps my feet land on a soft surface which gives way with each step I take. After walking for a few minutes the ground feels hard and soon my feet are wet, air is gently blowing on all of my body. With each step my legs are getting wetter. I stop walking when I feel my knees getting wet. I turn around, see a friend in the distance and walk towards her. My foot comes down on something squishy and slimy in the water - Yuck! I run back to the beginning, up the steps and don't stop until my feet feel that hard ridged surface again. Where have I been?

INVENTIONS

Scientists are researching and investigating the sense of touch with very interesting results. They have invented artificial hands to work robotically in places where human hands cannot work; places such as deep space or tiny spaces, places where there are dangerous conditions or materials, places where the robot hand can be remotely controlled. To make such robots the inventors must examine exactly how our hand and brain work together when we use our sense of touch, and then copy it into a machine.
Imagine the scientist who must invent a robot hand to take the cap off a bottle of dangerous liquid.
First she must carefully watch a person do it, paying attention to each step ....
How slowly our fingertips reach the cap (so as not to tip it over),
How hard we grasp the cap (too tight will crack the bottle, too loose it slips),
How gently we turn the cap until it is loose,
and finally how gently we lift the cap off.
There are a lot of scientific actions involved in opening a bottle!

Look at A GRASPING ROBOT to see how an actual robotic hand operates.

More information will be found with the following links to:
EXPLORE THE BRAIN.
A TEMPERATURE ILLUSION.
AMAZING ANIMAL SENSES.

For an entertaining book about touch and the other senses, read:
"What Can It Be? Riddles About the Senses" by Jacqueline Ball.

 

Sound Identification Activities



Ages: 3-4

Objective:

Children will be able to listen to, and identify various sounds.

Exercise One:

Materials:

Containers of various sizes such as plastic eggs, 35 mm containers, plastic baggies, etc...anything that can be sealed. Paper bag; things that make noise such as bells, marbles, rice, beads, pennies, etc.

Activity:

Put contents into a brown paper bag.
Shake the bag so the bag makes noise.
Explain that sounds are everywhere.
Ask if they can guess what is in the paper bag.
Pull out a container, such as a 35 mm container, containing something that makes noise.
Shake the container and ask what might be in it.
Tell them what is in the container.
Try a different container.
Let them guess what is in it.
Show them what is in this container.
Keep this up and then repeat the procedure and see if they can identify the various sounds from memory.

Exercise Two:

Materials:

Tape recorder and pre-recorded tape of various sounds that you have taped earlier. These sounds could be wind blowing, dogs barking, cat purring, etc. The list is endless and your imagination is what makes this lesson fun and different.

Activity:

Play the tape in class and pause after each sound. Discuss the sound with the class and see if anyone has any guesses for what these sounds might be. Make a game of it!

 

Air Ping Pong Race

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Materials:

2 ping pong balls
colored string or yarn
tape
table or floor

Preparation:

On a flat surface, put tape at both ends
for the starting positions. Measure and
tape the colored string across the half way
point.

Activity:

A student stands or lays at each of the
starting positions. Place a ball on the tape,
when the teacher/adult says "Go" each child
blows on his/her ball. Race to see who can
get the ball across the string first.





Move that Object

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Materials:

table
jumbo straws
variety of small objects

Preparation:

(Teacher) Gather a variety of objects
such as cotton balls, pencils, wooden
beads, paper clips, blocks, etc.

Activity:

*Have the children guess which objects
they can move across the table by
blowing through the straw.
*Experiment blowing the object with and
without the straw to see which method
moves the object the best.
*Let the children find other objects in
the room to explore with this activity.





Squeeze Me

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Materials:

dish pan half full of water
clear plastic squeeze bottles
(a variety of sizes).
basters

Preparation:

none

Activity:

* Children choose a bottle, unscrew the lid and
hold the bottle under the water until it is full.
They screw on the lid.
* Empty the bottle by squeezing it under the water.
* Squeeze the baster while the tip is underwater.
* Take the baster out of the water and squeeze the
bulb.

Notice:

Air is causing the bubbles, the bottle stays
squeezed until air gets back into it.





Pouring & Mixing

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Materials:

plastic cups
plastic pitchers
measuring cups
assorted caps and scoops
water
a shallow pan
assorted colors of construction paper

Preparation:

(Teacher) cut construction paper measuring caps
out of colors to match the cups.

Activity:

Explore pouring water into different containers.
A more advanced activity: make a graph by
using the construction paper caps to show how
many caps/scoops of water it took to fill each
cup or container.
The teacher can work on such skills as counting,
graphing, predicting, and estimating.





Mr. Hairy

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Materials:

1 empty half-pint juice or milk carton
scissors
one 2 1/2 x 12 inch piece of construction
paper
tape
crayons or markers
potting soil
parakeet or grass seed
water

Preparation:

(Teacher) collect cartons, wash and dry them.
Cut the top of the carton off. Measure and cut
the construction paper. Tape it onto the carton.

Activity:

* Students draw a face on the paper.
* Fill the carton with potting soil.
* Add enough water to make a thick mud.
* Sprinkle the seed on top.
* Place the carton near in a sunny spot.
* Water it when the soil is dry.
* Within 2 to 3 weeks Mr. Hairy will need a haircut.





Listen to that Sound

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Materials:

tape recorder
blank tape
various household items that produce sound

Preparation:

(Teacher) Begin in one room of your house and
start recording various sounds there. (ie. the
bathroom- water running, teeth being brushed,
hair dryer, water running, toilet flushing)
(Teacher with students) Begin in one area of
your school, together choose various sounds to
record.

Activity:

Play back the recorded sounds. Have the
children identify the sound and the location,
if applicable.





Sand Dough

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Materials:

2 cups flour
1 cup water
few drops vegetable oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup sand

Preparation:

Read the recipe with the children. Help them to
identify all of the ingredients.

Activity:

Assist the children in measuring and mixing
the ingredients, if necessary. Let the children
play with the sand dough. Discuss how it feels.
How is it different than your regular playdough?





Racing with Funnels

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Materials:

funnels of various sizes
sand

Preparation:

none

Activity:

Have various children hold the funnels over the
container/sand table and pour sand through for
a specific time. Discuss which funnel made the
biggest mountain of sand. Help the children
begin to make predictions for further trials.
An alternative to this activity might be having
cups of the same size available to put under the
funnels. Predict which cup will fill up faster and
why.





Patterns in the Sand

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Materials:

heavy cardboard
scissors
sand

Preparation:

Cut rectangles from the heavy cardboard, - one
side of each having notches or waves.

Activity:

Allow the children to use the cardboard
rectangles to make patterns in the sand.
Help the children to compare and contrast the
various patterns made.





Making Goop

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Materials:

1 baby food jar or small butter tub per child
cornstarch
water
measuring cup
food coloring
spoons (not plastic)

Preparation:

Read the recipe with the children and have them
check to see that all the ingredients are ready.

Activity:

* Have the children measure two tablespoons
of water and pour it into a jar.
* Next, have them measure four tablespoons
of cornstarch to add to the water in the jar.
* Stir
* Have each child pick their choice of food
coloring and assist each in placing two drops
in the mixture.
* Stir again
* Allow the children to touch the goop and talk
about how it looks and feels.





Making Playdough

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Materials:

1 cup flour
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
measuring cups and spoons
mixing bowl and spoon

Preparation:

Read the recipe with the children and have
them check to see that all the ingredients are
ready.

Activity:

* Have the children measure the ingredients and pour
into the mixing bowl.
* After measuring the flour and salt, allow the children
to feel each in the bowl. Discuss how they each feel
differently. Discuss how we can touch this cooking
project because we are not going to eat it.
* Add the wet ingredients, allow the children to touch
each of these and talk about how they feel.
* Take turns mixing the dough. While the children are
mixing, talk about how the ingredients are changing.
Allow the children to feel the playdough, encourage
them to describe the way it feels and looks.

Playdough will keep for at least a week if stored in an airtight container, longer if refrigerated.





What Does a Magnet Do?

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Materials:

various types of magnets
small objects
objects for "testing" in the room

Preparation:

Set up a table with magnets and several small objects.

Activity:

Allow the children to explore the magnets and objects at the table on their own. Later, ask them what it feels like when you hold two magnet ends together. What happens if they turn it around? Have the children "test" other things in the room to see if they are attracted to the magnet.





Magic Paper Clip

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Materials:

a jar
water
steel paper clip
magnet

Preparation:

Fill the jar with water.
Place a paper clip inside the jar.

Activity:

Have the children predict what will happen if you move the magnet up and down
the outside of the jar. Allow the children to do this. Discuss what is happening.





Look What I Can Do

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Materials:

none, just the children

Preparation:

none

Activity:

Discuss with the children what the parts of their bodies are like. Allow time for each child to say, or show, something that he or she can do.
Discuss our muscles. Where do we have muscles?
Discuss our bones. What do our bones feel like? Where are our bones?
Discuss our joints. How do our elbows and knees move? Have the children bend and straighten them. Ask children to show other places that bend.

This is Me!

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Materials:

none, just the children themselves

Preparation:

Have children bring in pictures of their family

Activity:

Discuss with the children how we all may have similar traits, but that we all
may be very different. Ask them if they look like anyone in their family. Help the
children to look at each aspect of themselves . . . What is your skin like? Is your
long or short? What is your hair like?
Have each child count their fingers and toe prints.